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African American literature

...a mix of autobiography and political commentary on race in America that identified Baldwin as the new conscience of the nation on racial matters. Subsequent volumes of essays,
Nobody Knows My Name (1961) and
The Fire Next Time (1963), underlined Baldwin’s fame as the most incisive and passionate essayist ever produced by black America. His...

discussed in biography

In 1957 he returned to the United States and became an active participant in the civil rights struggle that swept the nation. His book of essays,
Nobody Knows My Name (1961), explores black-white relations in the United States. This theme also was central to his novel
Another Country (1962), which examines sexual as well as racial issues.